Texts on Type : Critical Writings on Typography

by HELLER, STEVENMEGGS, PHILIP B.

• ISBN13: 9781581150827
• ISBN10: 1581150822
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: Allworth Press
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

Students and teachers of graphic design will enrich their understanding of 20th century type design and typography with this unique anthology. Contained in this volume are more than 50 important, known and rare texts by critics, historians, and type designers about the history, aesthetics, and practice of type design and typography. An invaluable addition to any school course on type theory and practice, the book contains heretofore unreprinted essays by major type masters, including W.A. Dwiggins, Hermann Zapf, and Paul Rand, as well as critical analyses of vintage and contemporary type and type design. A supplement to the successful Looking Closer series, the book specifically pinpoints those texts that will increase the common knowledge of typographic history and criticism. Spanning the 20th century, with emphasis on the 1940s to the present, this collection will be necessary reading for all design students and faculty.

Author Biography

Steven Heller is the co-chair of the School of Visual Arts MFA Design / Designer as Author + Entrepreneur Program. He is the author, coauthor, and editor of over 170 books on design, social satire, and visual culture. He is the recipient of the 2011 Smithsonian National Design Award for "Design Mind." He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Foreword	v
Steven Heller
Introduction	vii
Philip B. Meggs
Aesthetics: On Form and Expression
Found Poetry: The Dude Typographers	2	(4)
Alastair Johnston
Old and New Fashions in Typography	6	(10)
Talbot Baines Reed
Art in Type Design	16	(3)
Frederic W. Goudy
The Modern Type Family	19	(2)
Charles Brodie
An Existential Guide to Type	21	(13)
Karrie Jacobs
Criticism: Type as Discourse
A Plea for Authentic Type Design	34	(2)
Hermann Zapf
The Obscene Typography Machine	36	(3)
Philip B. Meggs
Type Is Dead: Long Live Type	39	(3)
Matthew Butterick
Designing Hate	42	(3)
Steven Heller
A Post-Mortem on Deconstruction?	45	(3)
Ellen Lupton
Rumors of the Death of Typography Have Been Greatly Exaggerated	48	(3)
Peter Fraterdeus
American Gothic	51	(3)
Rick Poynor
Anatomy: Understanding Typefaces
Adobe Garamond	54	(11)
Jerry Kelly
Modern Style with a Human Face	65	(3)
John D. Berry
Mrs. Eaves	68	(2)
Zuzana Licko
An Examination of Egyptians	70	(7)
Ruari McLean
Lead Soldiers	77	(5)
Paul Shaw
Futura	82	(6)
Alexander Nesbitt
Univers: A New Sans Serif Type by Adrian Frutiger	88	(2)
Emil Ruder
Sideshows in the Evolution of the Alphabet	90	(3)
Jerry Kelly
The Space Between the Letters	93	(7)
Moira Cullen
Movement: Defining Modernism
From De Stijl to a New Typography	100	(8)
Kees Broos
The New Typography	108	(2)
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
on typography	110	(5)
Herbert Bayer
The Principles of the New Typography	115	(14)
Jan Tschichold
The Bauhaus Tradition and the New Typography	129	(10)
L. Sandusky
The Consistency of Jan Tschichold	139	(4)
Jerry Kelly
The Cult of Lower Case	143	(3)
Douglas C. McMurtrie
The Philosophy of Modernism in Typography	146	(3)
Douglas C. McMurtrie
Why Go Modern	149	(5)
Frederic W. Goudy
The Good Old Neue Typografie	154	(2)
Paul Rand
Typographical Warfare	156	(3)
Otl Aicher
Zombie Modernism	159	(11)
Mr. Keedy
Practice: How Type Works
First Principles of Typography	170	(8)
Stanley Morison
Is the Abolishment of Justification Desirable? Anonymous	178	(4)
Typographic Heresies	182	(1)
Eugene M. Ettenberg
Typographical Topography	183	(10)
Stefan Themerson
On the Choice of Typeface	193	(5)
Beatrice Warde
Grid and Design Philosophy	198	(3)
Josef Muller-Brockmann
On Classifying Type	201	(9)
Jonathan Hoefler
Type Is To Read	210	(5)
William Golden
Typography---``The Eye Is a Creature of Habit''	215	(3)
David Ogilvy
Reflections: Type and Passion
I Am Type	218	(1)
Frederic W. Goudy
I Am Type! Revisited	219	(2)
Philip B. Meggs
The Dog of Alcibiades	221	(2)
M. F. Agha
The Trouble with Type	223	(5)
Rudy VanderLans
Experiments in Type Design	228	(7)
Tobias Frere-Jones
Electronic Typography	235	(4)
Jessica Helfand
A Face by Any Other Name Is Still My Face: A Tale of Type Piracy	239	(18)
David Pankow
Bad Credit	257	(3)
Zuzana Licko
Rudy VanderLans
The Land of Dancing Serifs	260	(3)
Peter Hall
The Authors	263	(5)
Acknowledgments	268	(1)
Index	269